Solution: Calibre AutoUpdater [Auto-Updater]

[megamaniac]

Dear community

I really like the agile development and short release cycles with user driven updates. This makes Calibre the tool I like. Although there is a pain because of the lacking auto update mechanism.

In the last minutes I wrote my own solution wrapped around the calibre portable installer. See commented version below. Probably someone could embed button/link into the update notification which executs a configurable command line command (in this case the .bat path).

Kind regards!

===
REM Auto-Updater for Calibre Portable
REM tested on Windows but easily adaptable for other OS, please use proper paths and process kill command
REM Preparation
REM Download (compile) curl from http://curl.haxx.se/

REM set curlBin to binary path, e.g.:
set curlBin=c:/_Portable/Internet/curl-7.22.0-w32/curl.exe

REM set tempFile to a unique file with existing parent directory, readable and writable
set tempFile=C:/Temp/calibreTemp.exe

REM use the entry url of calibre download page (probably test it with your web browser)
set staticUrl=http://status.calibre-ebook.com/dist/portable

REM choose your installation directory for Calibre, prompts wether existing installation shell be updated or not, avoid the ending slash
set targetDir="c:/_Portable/Office/Calibre Portable"

REM shuts down calibre instance immediatly if running (you may also use pskill or ps for linux)
taskkill -IM calibre.exe /T
%curlBin% --url %staticUrl% -L --output %tempFile%
%tempFile% %targetDir%
del %tempFile%
exit

[jemkeith]

Thanks for this! I'm going to use task scheduler to set it to run every Friday night! i don't have to ever worry about downloading it and installing it anymore. Thank you!

[PeterT]

Why not use the documented --shutdown-running-calibre switch to caliobre to shut it down, as opposed to using the brute force approach of killing it?

See http://manual.calibre-ebook.com/cli/calibre.html

[megamaniac]

I added the "/T" option to taskkill. Otherwise if e.g. an epub reader instance is in use the calibre-parallel.exe process blocks the update.

@PeterT
Did you try these options. In my case none of the CLI options had any effect.

@jemkeith
Yes I have done it the same way, here some (hopefully useful) hints for scheduling configs:

trigger: weekly at night before boot or login
action: start program: cmd
arguments: /c start /min "" <path-to-bat>/UpdateCalibre.bat
condition: connection available
config: start if missed

You could also add "--no-update-check" to your calibre link but I am not shure if it really works.

[jemkeith]

I modified it a little to use the 64 bit calibre and 64 bit curl and to install using the MSI file. You need to change the paths for your computer.
It seemed to work for me.

I made a few more changes. Mine works now...
It doesn't delete the download but moves it to another directory.

[jemkeith]

Originally Posted by PeterT

Why not use the documented --shutdown-running-calibre switch to caliobre to shut it down, as opposed to using the brute force approach of killing it?

See http://manual.calibre-ebook.com/cli/calibre.html

I will add this to my bat file. The worst that can happen is if I leave a book open, it won't update to the next week.

[Halo]

Windows already provides a temp folder to each user and sets an environment variable to it called %TEMP%. You should be using that, not creating a folder in your drive's root.